Hometeam: MIAA reverses Gardner's postseason ban

Dave Nordman, Jay Gearan TELEGRAM & GAZETTE

Published Tuesday February 5, 2013 at 6:00 am

Updated Wednesday February 6, 2013 at 12:46 am

The Gardner High girls' basketball team is two wins away from qualifying for the Central Mass. Division 2 Tournament. And with three games this week at LaChance Gymnasium, the Wildcats hope to clinch a postseason berth at home. Yes, Monday was a happy day in the Chair City.

PHOTO/ T&G Staff/RICK CINCLAIR

Gardner High School basketball coach Peter Gamache watches Monday as player Meg Doiron, left, passes to Denise Della-Giustina during practice at the school.

The Gardner High girls' basketball team is two wins away from qualifying for the Central Mass. Division 2 Tournament.

And with three games this week at LaChance Gymnasium, the Wildcats hope to clinch a postseason berth at home.

Yes, Monday was a happy day in the Chair City.

Nearly three weeks after the Massachusetts Interscholastic Athletic Association banned all of Gardner's winter athletes from the playoffs, the MIAA had a change of heart.

“As a result, any team or student-athlete who qualifies, and is otherwise eligible, may participate,” MIAA Executive Director Richard Neal announced in a letter to school and city officials.

Obviously, the news was a long time coming for Gardner's athletes and coaches, who had their championship dreams taken away on Jan. 16 when the MIAA penalized the school for not returning last year's state sectional swimming trophy.

“The first thing I said when I read the text from coach (Pete) Gamache was, 'Alleluia,' ” said Jill Sauvageau, a senior on the girls' basketball team.

With 865 points, Sauvageau had seven games left to reach 1,000 for her career. Now, she may have more.

Sauvageau's teammates were equally as excited.

Meg Doiron was taking part in an internship Monday at the Gardner fire station when she received Mr. Gamache's text.

“I put my hands up, and I was just, like 'Yes!' ” she said.

Junior Sadiya Clark said the postseason ban wasn't fair to those not involved in the yearlong battle between the MIAA and city over rules allegedly broken by its 2012 swim team.

“I don't see how (the MIAA) could take something like this away from such hard-working kids,” Clark said. “I didn't think they would throw all our accomplishments down the drain.”

First-year Gardner High Athletic Director Nicole Therrien said she never gave up hope.

“But I have to tell you,” she said. “I had to pinch myself when I read the email, which said the ban had been lifted. The whole thing seemed absurd, punishing kids who had nothing to do with the original issue.”

Sophomore track star Trevor Raux broke a 10-year-old school record in the 600 meters at the “Last Chance State Qualifying” meet on Sunday at the Reggie Lewis Center in Boston.

“I broke the record, but I was furious thinking about it on the way home,” Raux said of not being able to compete in the state meet. “When I found out in school today that the ban was lifted, I was overcome with joy.”

The reversal follows a letter sent Friday to the MIAA by Gardner Mayor Mark Hawke and schools Superintendent Carol Daring.

The letter read, in part: “We hope that the MIAA will accept this apology in order to allow Gardner's student athletes to do what they do best, compete and to return the focus of the winter sports season back to the Gardner High School student athletes.”

Gardner officials have been publicly critical of the MIAA. At one point, the mayor said, “If they want to come and get the trophy, they will have to pry my cold dead hands from around it.”

The defiant tone is mostly gone in the city's apology letter.

“We are passionate about protecting Gardner's students and protecting their achievements. As you know Gardner has had a proud swimming tradition. Gardner High School's swim team has been one of the shining stars of the Gardner High School sports programs. The mayor's pride in Gardner's swim team was exhibited in his zealous comments.”

In his letter to the mayor and superintendent announcing the MIAA's reversal, Mr. Neal wrote, in part: “Recognizing that the core mission of the MIAA is to promote educational athletic opportunities within our member schools, the MIAA board of directors is reluctantly removing that portion of your sanctions that would have excluded student participation in MIAA winter tournaments.”

While city officials apologized for not returning the swimming trophy and the MIAA reversed its postseason ban, the sides appear to no closer to settling their differences.

Mr. Hawke said Monday he was disappointed the city was not involved in announcing its deal with the MIAA. The sides, he said, have been working on a compromise since city Solicitor John Flick sent a three-page certified letter to Mr. Neal on Jan. 23.

MIAA public information officer Paul Wetzel said Mr. Neal recommended eliminating the postseason ban Friday to his board of directors, which completed its vote Monday morning.

Mr. Wetzel said the MIAA did not allow city officials to review the Mr. Neal's letter before it was released to the media.

“We are grateful for the board's lifting of the sanctions against our student athletes,” Mr. Hawke told the Telegram & Gazette Monday. “But we are disappointed that the MIAA chose to issue an injudicious press release that was less than magnanimous when we had asked to issue a joint press release.”

In their letter sent Friday, Mr. Hawke and Ms. Daring admit the school used an ineligible eighth-grade home-schooled swimmer, but self-reported the violation. They deny, however, breaking any other MIAA rules, including those which led the Wildcats to be stripped of their 2012 section title. These rules may have included the MIAA's “bona fide team rule.”

“The City of Gardner has no substantiated proof that the rules were violated,” Mr. Hawke and Ms. Daring wrote.

Meanwhile, in his letter announcing the lifting of the postseason ban, Mr. Neal questioned for the first time the legitimacy of Gardner's 16 state swimming titles, “raising the question as to whether previous MIAA championships also were earned fraudulently.”

On Monday, Mr. Neal also asked Mr. Hawke and Ms. Daring to limit their involvement and interference in the Gardner High athletic program, “leaving those responsibilities solely with the high school principal and athletic director.”

Mr. Neal further asked the school to provide in writing by June 1 “clear strategies to ensure a sea change in your athletic program governance.”

Mr. Wetzel said those changes include proper record keeping and the development of a student-athlete handbook, which clearly defines the MIAA's rules.

Failure to comply with that request, Mr. Neal wrote, would result in the MIAA not renewing Gardner's MIAA membership for the 2013-14 academic year.